Offline : Imprisoned Bloggers and Technologists

The number of individuals in prison around the world for raising their voices online is on the rise. In 2017, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that more than seventy percent of imprisoned journalists were arrested for activities conducted on the Internet. In a 2018 report, Reporters Without Borders cited 141 incidents of imprisoned citizen journalists, including bloggers and technologists, and nine citizen journalists killed. Now that individuals can speak up without the need for institutions or gatekeepers, states choose the most direct way to take away their power: incarcerating them, and taking them offline.

It's not just those who speak out who are sent to jail. Increasingly, EFF has seen coders, designers, makers, and hackers detained or threatened with prison for their work protecting or enhancing free expression and privacy. Writers, speakers, and journalists have long been understood by those in power as dangerous elements; now “technologist” has joined the list of occupations that corrupt politicians and dictators fear.

EFF supports the principles of free expression laid out in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and believes that those principles must extend online. The right “to seek, receive and impart information” includes a right to devise and share tools that enable and protect those abilities. “Offline” showcases key cases that may not be receiving wide coverage, but we believe speak to a wider audience concerned with online freedom.

Our international case advocacy is centered around awareness-raising. Over the years, we have often heard from those who have been released from detention that shining a spotlight on their case led to better treatment in prison or a speedier release. It is from this premise that we work, additionally ensuring that we have full support of an individual’s loved ones before we proceed with action.

We often collaborate with other organizations, including the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) and Global Voices Advocacy, to assist individuals and their families in finding legal, financial, and other support. With them, we work to assist the communities that form around these cases, help them navigate the UN human rights mechanisms, initiate creative campaigns for detained individuals, and shed light on this global phenomenon.

EFF is shocked and dismayed by the 15-year jail term handed down today in absentia to Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah and 24 other co-defendants, on charges of unlawful protest and attacking a police officer. The judgment was not expected to be made until 10am, but...

Today, Bassel (Safadi) Khartabil is celebrating his 33rd birthday in prison. This day is the 799th since the young software developer was detained in Damascus, Syria. That’s nearly 800 days that Bassel has not been able to write code, or tweet, or hug his family, or do any of...

Six Ethiopian bloggers, all members of the Zone Nine bloggers' collective, were arrested this weekend. Befekadu Hailu, Atnaf Berahane, Natnael Feleke, Mahlet Fantahun, Zelalem Kibret, and Abel Wabela were reportedly arrested in the streets or in their offices. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, police also...

Narenji ("Orange") was Iran's top website for gadget news, edited daily by a team of tech bloggers who worked from a cramped office in the country's city of Kerman. The site was targeted at Iran's growing audience of technology enthusiasts. Like Gizmodo or Engadget in the United States, it had...

Nearly three months since his arrest, the Egyptian blogger, software developer and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah remains imprisoned. Charged in December with organizing a demonstration to protest the failure of the draft constitution in legislating against military court martialing of civilians, Abd El Fattah is awaiting trial in...